Four simple rules to surviving a road trip

Road trips are a bit like Marmite. Some people love them, others hate them.

On paper, a road trip’s great. A group of friends or a family hitting the open road to get to a place they can’t wait to go to. What’s not to love?

Well, there’s the inevitable traffic, the arguments over music, the unscheduled stops and all the snack-related bickering. So, there’s quite a lot not to love, actually.

But we think there are ways to make road trips fun and to make them run as smooth as Marmite on toast.

Rule 1 – Always have a game up your sleeveThere are some games you can play in the car that won’t make you all hate each other after five minutes.

For families, try out ‘Rainbow’. Challenge the kids to spot a car of every colour of the rainbow. They have to say (not shout, never shout) the colour when they spot it, and the first to complete the rainbow wins. Depending on the length of the trip, you could play first to three or first to 300.

For friends, you can’t beat ‘20 questions’. Someone thinks of a famous place or person; the rest of the passengers can ask 20 yes or no questions to try and figure out who or what they have in mind. Trust us, you’ll lose track of time.

Rule 2 – For the love of music, be fairSo many road trips and friendships have been ruined because of music. Often, the driver gets first call on all music choices for the whole trip. But, we all know that can be a dangerous system.

To make things fairer, go for the half-and-half option. For the first half of the drive, the driver has control of the music. For the second half, someone else gets control. How do you pick them? Well, if only there was some kind of game you could play to pick a winner…

Is that game ‘20 questions’? Yes. Yes it is.

Another simple way to not let music ruin your relationships… just make a collaborative playlist before the trip. Job done.

Rule 3 – Pre-plan your routeAsk a driver what their least favourite thing in the world is, and they may say “Marmite”. Or, they’ll say “having to keep stopping on a journey”.

Route planning is key to a successful road trip. Don’t just think about the quickest route from A to B, think about the most efficient route.

If there’s a slightly longer way that has a few more opportunities to stop for food and drink or just to let the children stretch their legs a bit so they can burn off some of that pent-up energy, it might be worth taking that route instead.

Rule 4 – Pack the essentialsAlternatively, to cut down on the number of stops, make sure you pack well. Bring plenty of food and drink to ensure everyone’s comfortable for the length of the journey. If there’s the chance for long stops in traffic (and we all know there will be), pack more food and drink just to be safe.

Oh, and one last thing, a phone charger for your car is always useful. There’s nothing worse than getting lost and not having a sat-nav handy.

So, you can have a road trip without the dread, you just have to have some decent rules in place, a well-planned route and plenty of snacks. Simple!

Don’t forget, whether you’re driving five minutes down the road or five hours across the country, you need insurance. Get a quote from 1ST CENTRAL today.